Proclamation could never have come more appropriately than when the military need was greatest."

The Proclamation was not simply "a war measure," but "a political measure;" it was absolutely necessary to Mr. Lincoln to satisfy that element of his party that Mr. Greeley fairly represented in order to carry on the war at all. For its interest and importance I make another and longer extract from President Welling's article:

"The proximate and procuring cause of the Proclamation, as I conceive, is not far to seek. It was issued primarily and chiefly as a political necessity, and took on the character of a military necessity only because the President had been brought to believe that if he did not keep the radical portion of his party at his back he could not long be sure of keeping an army at the front. He had begun the conduct of the war on the theory that it was waged for the restoration of the Union under the Constitution, as it was at the outbreak of the secession movement. He sedulously labored to keep the war in this line of direction. He publicly deprecated its degeneration into a remorseless revolutionary struggle. He cultivated every available alliance with the Union men of the border States. He sympathized with them in their loyalty, and in the political theory on which it was based. But the most active and energetic wing of

the Republican party had become, as the war waxed hotter, more and more hostile to this 'border-State theory of the war,' until, in the end, its fiery and impetuous leaders did not hesitate to threaten him with repudiation as a political chief, and even began in some cases to hint the expediency of withholding supplies for the prosecution of the war, unless the President should remove 'pro-slavery generals' from the command of our armies, and adopt an avowedly antislavery policy in the future conduct of the war. Thus placed between two stools, and liable between them to fall to the ground, he determined at last to plant himself firmly on the stool which promised the surest and safest support.

“I am able to state with confidence that Mr. Lincoln gave this explanation of his changed policy a few days after the Preliminary Proclamation of September 22 had been issued. The Hon. Edward Stanly, the Military Governor of North Carolina, immediately on receiving a copy of that paper, hastened to Washington for the purpose of seeking an authentic and candid explanation of the grounds on which Lincoln had based such a sudden and grave departure from the previous theory of the

war.

Mr. Stanly had accepted the post of Military Governor of North Carolina at a great personal sacrifice, and with the distinct understanding that the war was to be conducted on the same constitu

That

tional theory which had presided over its inception by the Federal Government, and hence the proclamation not only took him by surprise, but seemed to him an act of perfidy. In this view he hastily abandoned his post, and came to throw up his commission and return to California, where he had previously resided. Before doing so he sought an audience with the President-in fact, held several interviews with him-on the subject; and knowing that, as a public journalist, I was deeply interested in the matter, he came to report to me the substance of the President's communications. substance was recorded in my diary as follows: "September 27. Had a call to-day at the "Intelligencer" office from the Hon. Edward Stanly, Military Governor of North Carolina. In a long and interesting conversation Mr. Stanly related to me the substance of several interviews which he had with the President respecting the Proclamation of Freedom. Mr. Stanly said that the President had stated to him that the Proclamation had become a civil necessity to prevent the radicals from openly embarrassing the government in the conduct of the war. The President expressed the belief that, without the Proclamation for which they had been clamoring, the radicals would take the extreme step in Congress of withholding supplies for carrying on the war, leaving the whole land in anarchy. Mr. Lincoln said that

he had prayed to the Almighty to save him from this necessity, adopting the very language of our Saviour, "If it be possible, let this cup pass from me;" but the prayer had not been answered.'"

Of the Preliminary, or warning, Proclamation of September, 1862, the following is the important portion:

"That on the first day of January, in the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and sixtythree, all persons held as slaves within any States, or designated parts of a State, the people whereof shall then be in rebellion against the United States, shall be then, thenceforward, and forever free; and the Executive Government of the United States, including the military and naval authority thereof, will recognize and maintain the freedom of such persons, and will do no act or acts to repress such persons, or any of them, in any efforts they may make for their actual freedom.

"That the Executive will, on the first day of January aforesaid, by proclamation, designate the States and parts of States, if any, in which the people thereof respectively shall then be in rebellion against the United States; and the fact that any State, or the people thereof, shall on that day be in good faith represented in the Congress of the United States by members chosen thereto at elections wherein a majority of the qualified voters of such State shall have participated, shall, in the ab

sence of strong countervailing testimony, be deemed conclusive evidence that such States, and the people thereof, are not then in rebellion against the United States."

What if the Confederate leaders had given up their struggle before January 1, 1863?

January 1, 1863, Mr. Lincoln issued the Proclamation, declaring all slaves as free in certain States, and parts of States, which he designated, as he had set forth in the warning of September 22, 1862.

This Proclamation did not touch such States as Maryland and Kentucky. The slaves in the other Southern States were practically set free as the Union armies advanced, conquering the country. But emancipation needed more than the President's Proclamation, as he had said before it was issued, and as he showed afterward in urging an amendment to the Constitution, forever abolishing and prohibiting slavery in the United States.

Mr. Dana, who was the devoted friend and the earnest champion of Mr. Lincoln through all the "storm and stress" of those eventful days, states the truth of the case in his review of President Welling's paper: "No doubt the proclamation of January 1, 1863, though such were not its terms, brought about a system of progressive military emancipation, taking effect as we advanced. But for the prohibition of slavery thereafter in the conquered States, under their Constitutions, as well as